


we can chase the dark together (if you go then so will i)

by hearden



Category: Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Wonder Woman AU, it's Not Exactly power rangers and Not Exactly wonder woman so, it's not world war 1 but i honestly don't know what the hell it is, like??? i don't know how to describe it but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 13:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11314377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearden/pseuds/hearden
Summary: Kendrix had been her supernova.(Wonder Woman-esque AU where Kendrix dies a heroic Steve-Trevor death.)





	we can chase the dark together (if you go then so will i)

**Author's Note:**

> for @kimberlyannharts on tumblr bc she said "cassie/kendrix in a wonder woman au" and i just yelled "IM GONNA WRITE IT" like the gremlin i am
> 
> this is neither wonder woman nor *exactly* power rangers, so have fun idk what the hell this is but it's Sad

Had she known, Cassie would’ve spent more time memorizing how brown those eyes were.

How a strand of hair would fall out of her ponytail and it’d take _everything_ in Cassie’s power to not immediately reach out and fix it.

The sound of her voice.

Her laugh.

Her last chance is when she stumbles to her feet, shaking off the disorientation of being thrown to the ground. Her ears are ringing, ringing, ringing, and then, Kendrix is there, pink and primed for battle, clicking off her helmet and saying things that Cassie can’t hear.

“Kendrix,” Cassie mumbles, watching her look out into the distance at the Megashuttle, “What-”

She turns to her, blonde, beautiful, and nods, her lips moving, but Cassie hears nothing but the feedback of her eardrum.

“What are you- I can’t- Kendrix, I can’t _hear_ you,” she pleads, her tone desperate. She’d kill to hear that voice again.

Kendrix shakes her head, and the smile she gives Cassie is so warm but so, so broken. Cassie’s heart clenches. She wants to know why Kendrix is sad. She wants to fix it.

“Whatever it is,” Cassie says, interrupting Kendrix, “I can do it. Let _me_ do it.”

She doesn’t have her powers, but that won’t stop her. It didn’t stop her from fighting Psycho Pink, and it wouldn’t stop her from anything.

Kendrix shakes her head yet again, frustrating Cassie more than anything. She wants to know what’s happening, what’s-

Her morpher is pressed into her hands, and Cassie glances down at it in shock. Gloved hands are on her shoulders, then cupping her cheeks, and Kendrix is mouthing words she can’t make out.

This feels like goodbye, and then, she’s gone, snapping her helmet back on and running off in the direction of the Megashuttle.

Everything happens all at once, an explosion, chaos, debris flying through the air as Psycho Pink recovers from the rubble, the Savage Sword clutched tightly in her hands.

Cassie straps her morpher back onto her wrist, her eyes defiant, Kendrix briefly forgotten to focus on the immediate threat.

Psycho Pink stiffens, bringing up the Savage Sword to point at her. “I’ve destroyed your morphers before,” she snarls, and Cassie imagines that if she had a mouth, she’d be grinning with a wolf’s teeth, “I can do it _again_ easily.”

Psycho Pink twirls the Savage Sword in her hand, but Cassie feels no fear.

“Not this time,” she challenges, squaring her shoulders. Her morpher is solid on her wrist, protecting her, grounding her in the moment, in the fight.

She doesn’t get a chance to throw the first punch because, just then, the Megashuttle roars to life, unsteadily wavering in the air, and Psycho Pink screams in anger, turning to chase after it.

_Oh, no, you don’t, bitch._

Cassie breaks out into a run after her, clicking her morpher open.

_“Let’s rocket!”_

Electricity crackles in her veins, the return of an unexplainable, unimaginable power to her body. Her destiny, her life, her power coming back to her, making her faster, stronger, alive again.

It feels like so many things.

Coming home after a long time away.

Kendrix’s hand in hers.

A kiss that had ended too soon.

She tackles Psycho Pink to the ground, knocking the Savage Sword out of her hands. A fist connects with Cassie’s helmet, disorienting her, and she lashes out, blindly, her pride swelling as she feels her gloved hand strike Psycho Pink’s visor.

Psycho Pink grabs her by the throat, lifting her up inches off of the ground, and Cassie chokes at the pressure against her windpipe, but it’s too late.

The Megashuttle is gaining altitude fast as Kendrix gets a hang of the controls.

It’s out of Psycho Pink’s reach now.

“You’ve failed,” Cassie declares, cocky triumph in her voice despite her predicament. The day isn’t over yet, but at least… at least, the outcome is better than it could’ve been. At least- She doesn’t let herself think about Kendrix.

Psycho Pink lets out a roar and hurls Cassie feet away with ease, pink electricity flickering between her fingers. She retrieves the Savage Sword and stops Cassie as she tries to get off of the ground, stomping down an armored foot on her chest, knocking the air straight out of her lungs.

“I don’t think so, _pinky_.” Cassie struggles underneath the pressure, screaming out in agony as it increases, and a sharp pain ricochets through her sides. “I might not have the Megashuttle, but your friends don’t have their powers, and you’re weak without them.”

“Call me weak again-” she coughs and uselessly tries to push Psycho Pink’s foot off of her chest, only to flinch and bang her helmet against the concrete so hard that she sees stars as Psycho Pink waves the Savage Sword in her face.

“Call you weak again and you’ll do _what_?” There’s an infuriating amount of gloating smugness in that taunt that Cassie wishes she could punch the nonexistent smirk off of Psycho Pink’s face and beat her in the head with it. She takes a deep breath, and it twists her in the gut like a knife.

She doesn’t dare move because of how close the Savage Sword is lingering just inches away from her visor, but she stiffens when Psycho Pink brandishes a small device in her free hand.

“This detonator will override and open the Megashuttle’s loading bay, and the people of Earth will die, despite all your _pathetic_ efforts.”

Her blood runs cold.

The Megashuttle- Kendrix-

Psycho Pink does nothing but watches Cassie, amused, as she struggles to bring her wrist close enough to speak into her morpher, ignoring the jab of pain that ignites in her body every time she moves.

“Kendrix? Kendrix!” she yells into her morpher, hoping, hoping that Kendrix can hear her.

There’s a static crackle and, then, _“Cassie? What-”_

“There’s a detonator, Kendrix. It overrides the loading bay- the bombs-” she manages to rush out before Psycho Pink grumbles and swings the Savage Sword at her face.

Cassie brings up both of her hands in time to stop the blade, but it pains her to do so. She can feel the heat against her gloves, slowly sparking and burning through the material; it’s not possible to hold it off too long.

She can’t touch her morpher, but she can still hear Kendrix’s voice coming through.

_“Cassie? Cassie?”_

“Poor little pinky is going to die, _all_ by herself,” Psycho Pink gloats, laughing maniacally, “While you watch, unable to do anything.”

She presses the detonator switch.

It had been meant to be a controlled explosion.

They couldn’t _move_ the bombs without triggering them, but they could fly them into space.

In an ideal world, Kendrix would’ve flown into an empty sector, and Terra Venture would’ve sent ships to go retrieve her, and they would trigger the bombs from a safe distance.

It wasn’t supposed to have happened this soon.

Too soon.

A bright flash fills up the sky where the Megashuttle had been retreating, bright enough to replace a star, bright enough to be a supernova.

A scream is torn from Cassie’s throat, raw and broken. Kendrix had done that to her, stripped her skin away, made her anew. Shown her how beautiful the world was in pink.

She sobs and sobs, her tears blurring her view out of her visor, but the rest of it never comes. The earth quaking, the sky falling apart, the screaming of hundreds - it never comes.

Psycho Pink realizes it about the same time that Cassie does, that Kendrix had, somehow, contained the detonation, and that her plan had failed.

Cassie almost laughs, but then the Savage Sword slams down onto her helmet, and she yells in pain as her visor cracks and shatters, shards of glass falling to the ground next to her head.

One eye stares up at Psycho Pink, broken, raging, and alone.

“These ungrateful humans don’t _deserve_ your protection,” Psycho Pink spits out, a growl low in her throat, “You should have let me raze the Earth and, _maybe_ , at the end, I would’ve let you and your pinky pal live.”

It’s question that Cassie has never asked herself, but she’s heard other people mention it before. After Rita and Zedd, after the Machine Empire, after Divatox.

Especially after Zordon and the end of the world.

She had spent weeks dodging the world rising again, news stations bustling and buzzing about the identities of the Power Rangers. Cameras everywhere and her utter annoyance at the fact that Cassie Chan was somehow someone the paparazzi followed, except not for the reasons she wanted them to.

Finally, the world knew at least one thing, and she never heard the end of it.

It figures, she thinks, that people find out who their idolized heroes are, and then, suddenly, she’s larger than life but not really a person at all. Just an object on a pedestal. A breaking news headline with her face plastered on every front page and her family and friends never leaving her alone with demanding phone calls and letters.

The world does not deserve the Power Rangers.

Because, to them, the Power Rangers are their heroes, their saviors that they take for granted, until, one day, maybe nobody will be able to answer the call anymore. Maybe, one day, they’ll lose, and the Morphing Grid will collapse from the sheer despair of a world without its warriors.

But, that day is not today.

“It’s- it’s not about deserve,” she croaks out, groaning in pain at Psycho Pink’s unwavering pressure keeping her grounded; pink electricity jumps between her fingers as she struggles to lift her arms, wrapping a hand around Psycho Pink’s ankle, “It’s about what you _believe_.”

With a shout, she yanks as hard as she can, disrupting Psycho Pink’s balance and sending her stumbling. Cassie rolls over on her side, coughing and gagging as air rushes back into her lungs. She scrambles to her feet, off-balance, one half of her pink heart missing, and it feels like she’s lost a limb.

Or, no, not a limb because she has four, technically five, and five colors are with the Galaxy Rangers, doing their best to fight off the biggest horde of Stingwingers they’ve ever seen that - coincidentally - have decided to attack Earth.

(Cassie doesn’t compliment villains much, much less fucking Psycho Pink, but it’s a good distraction if she’s ever seen one. A very big, very troublesome distraction, not to mention that she has them at a powered disadvantage.)

It feels like she’s lost a heart, her entire soul. It aches, but she can’t mourn right now.

There’s a whisper in the wind that sounds, suspiciously, like Kendrix’s voice.

_“I’m okay. I’ll always be here.”_

Cassie tells herself that it’s not real, that _now_ is the worst time to be hallucinating in grief, but she knows it’s as real as the fire in her bones and the pain in her gut.

She had missed her last chance.

_Kendrix’s helmet comes off, and her mouth is moving._

_“Cassie? Are you okay?”_

_Her ears are ringing, ringing, ringing._

_“Kendrix, what-”_

_“There’s no time,” Kendrix says, rushing, buzzing with nervousness, “We-_ **_I_ ** _have to get the Megashuttle away from Earth. The others can’t hold off the invasion any longer; it has to be now.” She nods to herself, already signing her resignation in her head._

 _Confusion flickers over Cassie’s face as her ears still refuse to stop ringing in time, “What are you- I can’t hear- Kendrix, I can’t_ **_hear_ ** _you.” Her face crumbles, and she looks close to the verge of tears, desperately trying to clear her hearing._

 _Kendrix shakes her head, her smile warm, stunning, but sad, not quite alive enough in Cassie’s memory, “It’s okay. I-” She pauses, heart breaking, “I have to go, Cassie. I_ **_have_ ** _to go. I love you.”_

 _Cassie cuts her off, still lost, still confused. “Whatever it is,” she insists, “I can do it. Let_ **_me_ ** _do it.”_

_“No, no,” Kendrix shakes her head again, “It has to be me. It has to.” She presses Cassie’s Astro Morpher into her hands, fully repaired and good as new, and moves her hands to cup Cassie’s cheeks, “See? I told you I’d fix it. For you and the others. Go, Cassie. Go. I can save today… and you can save the world.”_

_Cassie misses those hands on her face the moment Kendrix pulls away. She’s reacting too slowly, still processing the shock of her morpher being back in her hands._

_She puts her helmet back on, snapping it into place; Cassie can’t see the longing look of love behind Kendrix’s visor, “You already have once.”_

They didn’t have enough time.

Her breathing is heavy, and her chest hurts.

When she speaks, it feels like Kendrix is behind her words, urging her on to continue another day.

“I believe in love.”

 

* * *

 

 

When it’s all over, the pieces of the Savage Sword go to Terra Venture’s science officers for study. Cassie personally thinks they should be flung into the damn sun, but she doesn’t have the authority to suggest that.

And, they’d probably say no, anyway.

There’s a heaviness in her body, in the way she walks around Terra Venture, dragging her feet. The invasion had been defeated, and Cassie had delivered the killing blow to Psycho Pink’s smug head with a satisfying crack that did nothing to heal the crack in her own heart.

The other five Astro Morphers are returned, fixed and with power again, to their rightful owners. Cassie excuses herself out of the room when it happens, collapsing in the hallway, holding her own morpher to her chest.

It’s not the same to have a connection to the Grid again.

She would’ve given up everything if it meant another moment, rather than being here, with powers, but without Kendrix.

Somehow finding the strength, Cassie stumbles to her feet, ignoring a passerby’s offer of help, and ducks into another hallway, just as she hears Ashley’s voice drifting down the hallway, calling for her.

Not right now. She can’t deal with anyone else right now.

She walks and walks and walks until she comes to Kendrix’s quarters, stopping in her tracks. This is a terrible idea.

There’s a screen next to the door that’d been put in, and Kendrix’s face smiles back at her from the display. Yesterday’s date flashes underneath; Cassie chokes back a sob on the “in memoriam” and has to stop herself from shattering the screen with her fist.

The door is unlocked.

It shouldn’t be, especially considering that that means she, someone who shouldn’t be standing upright as of the moment, can just waltz in like she owns the place.

She’ll tell Kai later or something, to buff up the security so that grieving idiots like her can’t do stupid things that’ll hurt them even more, like stand in their dead girlfriend’s room and mourn.

Cassie breathes out a sigh, squeezing her eyes shut to stop the tears from coming. She’s been crying too much these past few hours, eventually she’s going to cry herself dry, and then who knows what’ll happen to her heart after that.

Behind her eyelids, she sees a bright flash of light, so her eyes snap open, expecting to see the lights flickering overhead, but instead-

“Kendrix.” The name falls from her lips like she’s been whispering it in her sleep for the past night. She has.

_“Cassie.”_

“I-” Cassie stops herself from going further and just gapes at the ghost in front of her.

This time, she tries to memorize every detail of Kendrix’s face, so much, that she almost misses the words directed at her.

_“Hold out your hands, please.”_

When Cassie just stares at her in shock, Kendrix’s ghost steps closer and nods for her to do so. With a soft sigh, Cassie holds out her hands, palms up, waiting.

There’s a flash of light and a crackle of pink electricity between them, a spark that never finished, and a weight materializes in her hands.

The pink Quasar Saber, not as destroyed as they had thought it’d been.

“Wha- how-” She has no words - she never has around Kendrix, but this is different. This is new.

 _“The power’s all yours, now,”_ Kendrix says, an encouraging smile on her face. Her eyes are warm, but Cassie just feels cold.

“I-I can’t,” she stutters, “It’s not-”

 _“Someone has to take over,”_ Kendrix urges, and she waves a hand over Cassie’s left wrist; her Astro Morpher disappears, and in its place…

Kendrix’s Transmorpher feels alien on her arm. It doesn’t belong to _her._

Cassie lets out a distressed sigh, “Me?”

Kendrix chuckles, softly, and Cassie’s knees almost go out from under her at that magical sound that she’ll never hear alive again, _“Yes, you. You can do it. I believe in you, Cassie.”_

There’s a pause in the air.

_“I love you.”_

She freezes, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

“I love you, too, Kendrix.”

This time, she doesn’t miss her chance to say goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> title is from Anthem of the Angels - Breaking Benjamin
> 
> i have no Actual backstory for this ficlet but like? psycho pink destroyed the astro morphers so kendrix was repairing them? and psycho pink rigged the megaship with bombs and had an override switch to release them but kendrix blew them up a la steve trevor?? who knows
> 
> also i mentioned zhane even tho he wasn't in the power of pink but whatever PR continuity makes NO sense


End file.
